by Kenneth Hynek
Paper strips can quickly detect toxin in drinking water:
[Via Eureka! Science News - Popular science news]
A strip of paper infused with carbon nanotubes can quickly and inexpensively detect a toxin produced by algae in drinking water.
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This is pretty cool. They put carbon nanotubes on paper which has ben impregnated with antibodies. This paper has a certain electric conductivity that is changes when the antibodies bind to the particular antigen they were raised against. In this case it is a particular toxin from algae. But apparently any antibody can be used, meaning that almost anything could be used.
As is typical, the press release does not provide a link to the article – Simple, Rapid, Sensitive, and Versatile SWNT−Paper Sensor for Environmental Toxin Detection Competitive with ELISA. While I am not going to pay $30 to get the whole article, I can see from the abstract that they can detect pretty low levels.
They can detect less than 1 nmol/L of the toxin. Not bad. And this can also be used in fabrics, suggesting some very interesting uses. Perhaps this could be a nice use for sequestered carbon dioxide.
Perhaps 55% of the carbon dioxide produced by power plants could be converted to carbon nanotubes. These could then be used for a lot of things, such as building reinforcement or cheap detectors.
Or perhaps the carbon nanotubes could be used directly to sequester carbon dioxide. Keep an eye out. Someone will make lots of money here.
Technorati Tags: Environment, Science, Sustainability
